Soon-to-be renamed Big East, ESPN agree to contract

Associated Press

Updated 3:27 pm, Tuesday, March 19, 2013

NEW YORK — The soon-to-be-renamed Big East has completed its television deal with ESPN.

The contract announced Tuesday for football, basketball and other sports runs through the 2019-20 season and pays about $20 million a year.

The so-called Catholic 7 basketball schools are leaving the conference and taking the Big East name; they're completing an agreement with Fox.

The rest of the league will include South Florida, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Temple, Memphis, Central Florida, SMU and Houston in 2013. East Carolina and Tulane are to join in 2014 and Navy is scheduled for football in 2015, with a 12th member expected.

ESPN has been affiliated with the Big East in its various incarnations for more than three decades. The network will own rights to at least 66 football games and 170 men's basketball games annually, licensing some to other channels.

Elsewhere, Xavier is ready to join the reconfigured Big East, with an announcement expected out of the new league on Wednesday, two sources familiar with the move have told The Associated Press.

Seven Catholic schools split off from the Big East to form a basketball league, retaining the name and looking to add schools. Xavier has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to talk about its future. Two persons familiar with the move, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the league would announce the move on Wednesday.

Xavier has been a dominant team in the Atlantic 10 in recent years, winning at least a share of the regular-season title for five straight seasons. The Musketeers failed to get a title and missed out on the NCAA tournament this year.